When I was a kid, my dad and I always played FFX together. The menu was in German, since that was the console's language, but all the dialogue is in English, which is how I learned a lot of words like antidote and defense, etc.! It really helped me to learn English. So, recently I got back into studying Japanese and looked up a Japanese Let's Play, which I've been really enjoying. I know the story by heart, so while the Kanji and move names and all of that are hard to understand, I actually found I understand much more of the dialogue than I thought I would. It's been really motivating and it has also helped a lot with my Katakana skills. Thank you for the great list of recommendations! I'm not at the level where I could play a game in Japanese, but I'll come back to this in the future for sure😌

"Don't worry about understanding everything." "Make flashcards if you feel like it. If you don't then don't." Ty out here dropping wisdom. I'm really excited about Rune Factory 5, but since I have to choose between the English and Japanese version I will probably buy it in English in the end.

Great video! Hoping the algorithm brings it to more Japanese language learners.

Excellent video, Ty! Great advice and it really works. Looking forward to your next video.

I've never seen anyone online recommend sticking to Japanese -> English dictionary lookups, it's always "Once you're past the beginner stage, it's much better to switch to a J -> J dictionary" which never made sense to me. Why would you want to prolong the time it takes to look up a word? That's the most tedious part! Imagine someone learning English saw the word "tree" and had to look it up, what would be the better approach? A: Seeing "tree = 木" then getting back to the fun stuff 0.5s later, or B: Spending a few minutes (and extra dictionary lookups) to parse "a woody perennial plant, typically having a single stem or trunk growing to a considerable height and bearing lateral branches at some distance from the ground." I get that making sense of the definition is "extra practice" but I'd rather spend more time on the game/book/TV show than on wordy "dictionary-speak".

This is great! Thanks for making this video!! I don't have a switch, but your advice applies to pretty much any console or learning a language through video games in general. Very enjoyable and informative :)

I know this video is for Japanese learners, but it’s still super helpful to me as a Korean learner. So thank you :)

Thanks! I needed something like this haha

Loved the video! Very helpful :)

Great advice Ty. Thank you!

Such a great video! I'll be sure to pick up a switch and play some Pokemon while i'm in the train each day for university.

I have that same Animal Crossing Switch! I've been learning Japanese for 3-4 months now and never thought to use the Switch, have played Animal Crossing on and off for about 2 years, I think having it on Japanese will help a lot. I made up a bunch of flashcards I just heed to start using them. 😂 Excellent video, thank you!!❤

actually true, this is exactly how I learned english but it's a process that took like 15 years+

New to add: Persona 5 . Intermediate - Advanced. And you can turn the Japanese on and off at will.

This video is great 👍 you maybe transferred another places but I think you can do anything. Everything will be fine.

thats what exactly im doing. I always play Jrpgs in Japanese. Because of that ,Ive already learned a Handful of N1 Kanji. but the downside is u cant use it in casual conversation. You might sound like a novel narrator.

How do you balance between the idea of "You don't need to understand _everything_" and feeling like the game is "too hard" and that you should come back to it later? To me they feel like opposing ideas and I'm still struggling to find that middleground. It's too easy for me to have a bad day with a game and think "This is just too hard for me. What else could I play?"

お疲れさまでした！

really good recommendations, the native shark looks really interesting , but it's too expensive for a student

Gonna do this with French cuz that would be cool

I really appreciate the video and have changed my switch to Japanese, but I’m confused by the part where use an English definition… can I just use google translate from Japanese to English for this? Thank you

What about not using flashcards or SRS at all?

What did you use for “core studies”?

Get on the Japanese Eshop, somehow find a way to get money in there, and grab yourself the Switch port of the Phone port of Dragon Quest 1. Elementary school kanji, everyone's super casual and direct, and the story itself is super simple. The versions are split between an international English/Korean/Chinese one and the Japanese one, sadly Oh, right, also 99.9% of the text waits for you to press A. That's a big point when you don't feel like screenshotting everything to go read slowly lol

Just a heads up, I made the mistake of downloading usotuke hime to momoku ouji without realizing that it doesn’t support Japanese on my switch! I just wanted to put that out there. Is there something I’m doing wrong to not be able to play it in Japanese?

Consoles evolution and we can now emulate Switch on the Steam Deck. I don't mean owning a Switch isn't necessary, I still have mine! Just because… It's so lightweight haha I have small hands and the steam deck breaks my wrists if I play for long periods (which, in fact, is what I do… no one can tell me 8h is enough haha). But the SD has things that Switch doesn't, like having all the PC catalogue just in your hands. Whenever you want. And the best is… We can switch language / voice if the game has the option to! 95% of the games I buy I check they have jpn option (subs, voice and interface) so I can change to it on my second time play. I just found some games don't allow this if you don't buy it on Japan (like Uncharted and some other) but this is just 1% of all the catalogue. Plus, you can find amazing offers that you can't on consoles (I bought Ni no Kuni 1 for less than 7€, and 2 for less than 9€. What a steal!). If I could use all my xbox games on Japanese… I would like to hear your opinions on this. I think SD is one of the best tools for us. Don't take me wrong, I still own my 3ds and switch haha And I'll keep them, but it's soooooo good to have all the catalogue on the same console. PS. If someone is asking, I own the first batch of Switch (you can get how FAN I'm of Nintendo) and yes, it's h4cked. It's the only way to have jp games on there… As I can't buy them here.

For me Persona 4 - 5 - 3 are the best for learning Japanese

I learn Russian with my switch for the past 4 years

Nice Channel Bro! Just dropped a sub to you! Thanks for your help at the Subway 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻